Tag Archives: education

Watching PBS last night with my family, I learned that Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on the same day two hundred years ago today.

Kristine had been urging me to stop growing the Family Forest® long enough to write a new blog about Lincoln before his birthday passes. I had been considering comparing him to Benjamin “Don Benito” Wilson, another early American wilderness boy born about the same time who went on to greatness.

I had also been considering talking about the recent inaugural celebration concert at the Lincoln Memorial and the Family Forest® cousins I had noticed there in addition to the Obama and Biden families, like Pete Seeger, Tao Rodriquez-Seeger, George Lucas, James Taylor, Ashley Judd, and Tom Hanks. While channel surfing over the weekend, I stopped at Forrest Gump just in time to be reminded that Tom had already spoken in front of the Lincoln Memorial at least once before.

Surely he would have found the world’s largest maps of human genetic migration thought provoking and helpful in his work, and I’d like to think he would have been amazed to discover what this single digital resource can do to ignite the curiosity and imagination of children.

Surely he would have been in awe to learn that it is has become possible to start with President Obama’s children, or Tom Hank’s children, and travel through their own generation-by-generation family ties to reach him and his family, plus

President Lincoln’s family, and to relate them personally to so many thousands of the most famous people, places, and events in human history.

Knowing your genealogy can actually be worth substantial money to you, and life-changing knowledge can be beyond priceless, truly of incalculable value.

For instance, having the knowledge I just discovered could have given a life-changing advantage of monumental value to one of your ancestors, to you, and to your descendants.

In fact, if one of your ancestors had discovered this key knowledge when they really needed it, you and your descendants would have been born into an entirely different and almost certainly much better socio-economic environment.

And you or one of your descendants may be standing at that very crossroads right now.

The amazing Google Book Search was the source of one key piece of knowledge that led me to the pleasing discovery that the Family Forest® contains an additional treasure trove of priceless knowledge that I was unaware of.

This particular gem of knowledge was found in a book that has been in the Harvard College Library for over a century. This book is number 299 of a 300 edition printing of a 1905 genealogy book about the Kingsbury family. A sticker in the front of the book says:

“From the Bright Legacy. Descendants of Henry Bright, jr., who died at Watertown, Mass., in 1686, are entitled to hold scholarship in Harvard College, established in 1880 under the will of Jonathan Brown Bright of Waltham, Mass., with one half the income of this Legacy. Such descendants failing, other persons are eligible to the scholarships. The will requires that this announcement shall be made in every book added to the Library under its provisions.”

One of these is the surname of a friend who was struggling last fall to find funds to give his daughter a good college education. A couple of them are names of members of my church congregation, one is one of Kristine’s ancestors, four are some of my ancestral surnames, and some are names and/or ancestral surnames of people we see regularly in the news.

How many people who are entitled to basically free money from their ancestors are completely unaware of it? How many people with unusual surnames such as Ahrens, Dvojacki, or Passarella, or common surnames such as Baker, Clark, or Smith, would know that they had ancestors with the surname of Bright, and that this knowledge can entitle members of their family to a life-changing advantage?

Bill Gates probably didn’t mean it exactly the way it sounded, but he did say on The Charlie Rose Show that “Everything is web-based.”

Everything is not web-based yet, and here’s one example that relates to cousin Bill personally, and quite possibly professionally.

Bill can give his children an enriching digital edutainment gift of potentially limitless value for just $50, and he cannot acquire anything similar to it now from Microsoft, or Google, at any price. This gift cannot be explored online – yet.

But offline, with just a few mouse-clicks in the Family Forest® Bill and Melinda Gates’ children can summon maps of their own ancestral pathways that lead directly from them and travel generation-by-generation to countless ancestral homes from many centuries ago, including some very prominent ones within the Gates family’s summer vacation destination, France.

Even with the basically unlimited resources of Microsoft, or Google, it seems that it will still be years before anyone can deliver the full functionality of even yesterday’s Family Forest® online (and that edition is basically only a concept sketch of the National Treasure Edition we are preparing to release next).

Two leading edge digital delivery companies have been trying to bring tiny slivers of Family Forest® output online.

Google has been working at it for over four months now, and they are not quite there yet (in fairness to Google, one is believed to be the world’s longest ebook). After having the same digital content for six months, in June 2008 ebrary estimated that it might be able to successfully make our rich content fully functional online within their system in the second half of 2009. And we’re only talking about slivers of stage-two digital content from where we were in 2005.

Some digital property, such as the Family Forest®, is beyond the capabilities of today’s Internet, but will be an integral part of the exciting future Internet that Bill talks about with Charlie Rose.

We envision people experiencing online virtual visits with their early ancestors in 3-D VR re-creations of their ancestral homes. As they have been many saying for many millennia, “All paths lead to Rome,” and the Family Forest® proves it.

Among many other best-of claims, the Family Forest® is the best digital central source for generation-by-generation ancestral pathways leading from today to Ancient Rome.

When the Internet evolves enough to deliver the full functionality of the Family Forest® online, our proprietary network of strategic digital links will be performing the service of a high-speed transportation system (much like express elevators) connecting living people to many of their ancestors and their ancestral homes in centuries past.

For an example, just look at the wide-ranging large list of some of the better-known people who are descendants of just one French castle. Or better yet, as soon as Google Books can successfully deliver it online, explore what we believe is the world’s largest ebook, which documents a very large number of the known descendants of Briquebec Castle.

The founder of Briquebec Castle has ancestral pathways in the New World Edition which lead from him back to Ancient Rome. Many millions of living people may be as close as a few generations away from connecting to their own ancestral pathways which lead to Briquebec Castle. And of course, there will be tens of thousands of additional connecting points in the National Treasure Edition to this and other castles.

How accurate are these generation-by-generation ancestral pathways that lead from present day (or the recent past) to Ancient Rome and beyond? The answer can be found here. Stay tuned to Your Future, Your Past for previews of other exciting future possibilities from our digital property.

This release will be called the Family Forest® National Treasure Edition for several reasons, beginning with what we were told early in the project by a great American who is a former Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives.

After looking at our work he said to us “You do a great service to our country by encouraging people to find out about their roots and engaging them personally in its history.”

We took this as a compliment for the work we had already completed, confirmation that we were on the right track, inspiration for moving forward, and concrete guidance steering the continuing future growth of the Family Forest® Project.

It has been my personal goal for quite some time now that one or more U.S. Presidents will publicly call the Family Forest® Project a national treasure, and after

The Family Forest® can now connect far more people personally, through generation-by-generation family ties, to more people, places, and events in human history (including Sarah Palin and the 2008 Presidential Election) than any other single digital resource.

It is a unique supplemental edutainment resource to enhance the study of almost every facet of American history by students of all ages, and it is partisan-neutral.

As it says on almost all of our releases over the last decade “While the Family Forest® ……. Edition is very much about genealogy, it is primarily about U.S. history, and more than 3,500 years of Old World history leading up to the birth of the United States. It is a fun and very easy to use reference source that should be a valuable resource for every student of history, young or old.”

We are confident that our People-Centered Approach to History® has reached the magnitude and scope that deserves to be called a national treasure, and we receive delight from our belief that the Family Forest® Project will be helping to inspire future leaders to greatness.

They say that within every dark cloud is a silver lining, and my heart attack and the resulting surgery and recovery have not been an exception. Being forced to take it easy allowed me time away from the computer screen to watch quite a lot of the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and to become inspired by so much concentrated human excellence.

Having so many various and diverse individuals from different countries and backgrounds coming together in friendship and peace to compete, excel, and seek the highest honors in their specialties is a real beacon of hope for the world’s future.

I also noticed that ExxonMobil ran many ads, which focused on the need to interest children early in excelling at math and science.

Growing the amazingly networked system of links that is the Family Forest® has convinced me that there is a much better approach than a direct frontal assault to their worthwhile objective.

Personally connecting schoolchildren to greatness through actual family ties, as the Family Forest® can do, is a much more powerful beginning step to lead kids toward excellence in many fields, including math and science, and the pursuit of Olympic Gold.

Family Forest® discoveries can be very powerful catalysts to spark children’s curiosity and excitement.

After more than a decade of growing the Family Forest® Project, we know that the Family Forest® is the best digital central source to personally connect the largest number of students of all ages to greatness through their own family ties. It is a very enriching and empowering resource, and I wish it were available to me as a young student.

The ideal candidates will be those who regularly appear in international print and broadcast media as instantly recognized celebrities, who are welcome guests on Oprah, Larry King Live, The Charlie Rose Show and others, and who are already very extensively networked through actual family ties to a large number of everyday people in the Family Forest®.

This role should be fun and personally rewarding, and when millions of people discover the staggering amount of their own early ancestral history that has already been assembled by the Family Forest® Project, this performance will be as easy as leading a parade just by stepping out in front of it and walking in the same direction. Plus the affiliation will simultaneously promote the spokespersons’ own projects.

Here are our top twelve choices at this time, not necessarily in priority order.

Tom Hanks (and maybe his relatively close cousin, Oscar-winner Sissy Spacek): Almost as important as his superstar status, Tom’s personal passion for history, as can be seen in his interview concerning the John Adams mini-series, and his own family ties to the Da Vinci Code make him a perfect Family Forest® spokesperson. In addition, his production company Playtone can benefit from the ancestral marketing opportunities the Family Forest® provides.

Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick: In addition to being a famous husband and wife team who are both extensively networked through actual family ties in the Family Forest®, Kevin’s “Six Degrees of Separation” fame is shorthand for the concept that we are all connected. The Family Forest® illustrates this concept using genealogy, and both Kevin and Kyra can be hubs for these surprising webs of connections.

Prince William and/or Prince Harry: The Family Forest® can show far more of the ancestral history of the British Royal Family with just a few mouse-clicks than any other digital resource, and it connects Prince William and Prince Harry personally through family ties to everyday people throughout the world. We believe this is a project

Uma’s father and Richard can make them a great team to introduce the world to the world’s largest maps of human migration, and the resulting conclusion that we are all much closer related than common knowledge has been teaching.

Madonna: Although the Family Forest® does not yet lineage-link her into the

Royal Channel, Madonna’s son Rocco is of known royal descent according to recorded history. The enriching benefits of personally connecting schoolchildren personally to human history is a theme Madonna could excellently convey.

Jimmy Buffett and his “Uncle” Warren Buffett: Jimmy’s words are true, “Everybody’s Got A Cousin in Miami,” and the Family Forest® shows why. A team of two old friends representing both the entertainment world as well as mainstream America will help show that the Family Forest® bridges many interest areas.Plus, when the patterns of human genetic migration become better known, as the Family Forest® will teach, it will be obvious that Warren and Jimmy are actually related very very much closer than reported by 23andMe.

Paris Hilton: Similar to “When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen,” when Paris does anything, people pay attention. This can be a perfect opportunity for Paris to use her media power constructively for a noble purpose.

David McCullough: Listening to his interview by Charlie Rose, it is obvious that David McCullough has one of the best intuitive grasps on the concept of A People-Centered Approach To History®, and his readers can use the Family Forest® to increase their enjoyment of his books.

Sam Waterston: His portrayal of a deep thinking, caring, and very believable person in Mindwalk, bolstered by his performance in Law and Order, made him an ideal spokesman for T.D. Waterhouse, and can also make him an ideal spokesman for the Family Forest® Project.

Icons from the Past: Similar to the technique Steve Martin used so effectively in

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, past Hollywood stars such as Bogart, Hepburn, and others such as the collection represented by CMG, can still perform today. Historical clips from icons who are no longer with us can be used strategically to allow them perform again today as excellent Family Forest® spokespersons.

We also welcome inquires from all of the many other celebrities who fit the criteria above.